Environmental degradation and political constraints in ethiopia

The article begins by outlining the extent and origins of environmental degradation in northern Ethiopia. Soil conservation and related environmental rehabilitation measures adopted by the Ministry of Agriculture, with donor assistance, are outlined and shown to be inadequate to reverse the trend of environmental degradation. Their scope and financing are too limited, there are too few immediate production returns for the peasants, and the conventional 'top-down' implementation of the measures means that peasants participate in rehabilitation programmes as paid workers (food-for-work) rather than as responsible landowners. The post-revolutionary government has continued the centralising and state-building policies of its predecessors, substituting the state for feudal lords as the appropriator of peasant production and labour. The wars in Eritrea and Tigray consume the lion's share of the state's resources and development programmes have become increasingly extractive (procurement of grain at low prices, labour campaigns, etc.) and penetrative (relocation of population, collectivisation of agriculture, etc). The problem of land degradation is ultimately a political one: how to find a political formula within which efficient development administration can be combined with power sharing and cultural pluralism.     

Warfare in Biodiversity Hotspots

Abstract:  Conservation efforts are only as sustainable as the social and political context within which they take place. The weakening or collapse of sociopolitical frameworks during wartime can lead to habitat destruction and the erosion of conservation policies, but in some cases, may also confer ecological benefits through altered settlement patterns and reduced resource exploitation. Over 90% of the major armed conflicts between 1950 and 2000 occurred within countries containing biodiversity hotspots, and more than 80% took place directly within hotspot areas. Less than one-third of the 34 recognized hotspots escaped significant conflict during this period, and most suffered repeated episodes of violence. This pattern was remarkably consistent over these 5 decades. Evidence from the war-torn Eastern Afromontane hotspot suggests that biodiversity conservation is improved when international nongovernmental organizations support local protected area staff and remain engaged throughout the conflict. With biodiversity hotspots concentrated in politically volatile regions, the conservation community must maintain continuous involvement during periods of war, and biodiversity conservation should be incorporated into military, reconstruction, and humanitarian programs in the world's conflict zones.     

猪粪堆肥中一株溶磷菌的筛选鉴定及溶磷能力初步测定

从猪粪堆肥中分离纯化得到一株具有较强溶磷能力的菌株PSM-1,进行了形态学和分子生物学鉴定,研究了其溶磷能力和遗传稳定性.结果表明:通过菌落形态和ITS基因序列分析鉴定,菌株PSM-1为产黄青霉(Penicillium chrysogenum);在3种不同无机磷源液体培养基中其溶磷量依次为Ca3(PO4)2(138.36 mg·L-1)Fe PO4(117.38 mg·L-1)Al PO4(113.76 mg·L-1),且PSM-1的溶磷量均与培养液p H值呈现出显著负相关性;以葡萄糖为碳源、硝酸铵为氮源时,菌株PSM-1的溶磷量最高可达195.67 mg·L-1,比初始有效磷高141.42%;该菌株对碳源和氮源的利用效率分别依次为:葡糖糖蔗糖麦芽糖淀粉,硝酸铵硝酸钾硫酸铵草酸铵;经过20次传代培养后PSM-1的溶磷量保持在(124.54±3.50)mg·L-1,说明其溶磷遗传稳定性良好.研究表明:PSM-1菌株具有良好的溶解无机磷的能力,在土壤微生态改良方面具有重要的应用潜力.     

Mapping legal authority for terrestrial conservation corridors along streams

Wildlife corridors aim to promote species’ persistence by connecting habitat patches across fragmented landscapes. Their implementation is limited by patterns of land ownership and complicated by differences in the jurisdictional and regulatory authorities under which lands are managed. Terrestrial corridor conservation requires coordination across jurisdictions and sectors subject to site-specific overlapping sources of legal authority. Mapping spatial patterns of legal authority concurrent with habitat condition can illustrate opportunities to build or leverage capacity for connectivity conservation. Streamside areas provide pragmatic opportunities to leverage existing policy mechanisms for riverine and terrestrial habitat connectivity across boundaries. Conservation planners and practitioners can make use of these opportunities by harmonizing actions for multiple conservation outcomes. We formulated an integrative, data-driven method for mapping multiple sources of legal authority weighted by capacity for coordinating terrestrial habitat conservation along streams. We generated a map of capacity to coordinate streamside corridor protections across a wildlife habitat gap to demonstrate this approach. We combined values representing coordination capacity and naturalness to generate an integrated legal-ecological resistance map for connectivity modeling. We then computed least-cost corridors across the integrated map, masking the terrestrial landscape to focus on streamside areas. Streamside least-cost corridors in the integrated, local-scale model diverged (∼25 km) from national-scale least-cost corridors based on naturalness. Spatial categories comparing legal- and naturalness-based resistance values by stream reach highlighted potential locations for building or leveraging existing capacity through spatial coordination of policy mechanisms or restoration actions. Agencies or nongovernmental organizations intending to restore or maintain habitat connectivity across fragmented landscapes can use this approach to inform spatial prioritization and build coordination capacity. Article impact statement: Combined mapping of legal authority and habitat condition reveals capacity to coordinate actions along streams for clean water and wildlife.     

Cyanide generation during preservation of chlorinated wastewater effluent samples for total cyanide analysis.

Dechlorinating agents and pH adjustment are often used to preserve wastewater samples for cyanide analysis. The effects of four approved preservation protocols on the results of the total cyanide analysis of effluents from four water reclamation plants were examined. The results differed widely, and a clear pattern emerged. Immediate analysis without pH adjustment generally gave total cyanide concentrations below the reporting limit of 5 microg/L, irrespective of the dechlorinating agents used. When the pH was adjusted to > or =12, a slight increase in the measured total cyanide concentration was observed when thiosulfate was used to dechlorinate the samples, and a significant increase (>10 microg/L) was observed when arsenite was used as the dechlorinating agent. These results provide evidence that approved preservation protocols may give rise to cyanide formation in chlorinated wastewater effluent matrices.     

新安江水库悬浮颗粒物时空分布、沉降通量及其营养盐效应

为分析降雨入流影响下水库悬浮颗粒物的时空分布及沉降特征,在华东地区最大水库新安江水库(千岛湖)的河流区、过渡区和湖泊区(分别对应街口、小金山和大坝这3个水质断面)布设水体沉降物自动捕获器和水质高频自动监测浮标,结合定期水样采集分析,开展了为期1 a的水体颗粒物沉降通量及其营养盐效应观测研究.结果发现,水库水体浊度、悬浮颗粒物浓度(SS)、颗粒物沉降通量与降雨量、入库流量极显著相关(P0.01),其中浊度与SS的相关性最好(R~2=0.86);在降雨较多的春夏季,SS空间差异明显(河流区过渡区湖泊区),而秋冬空间差异不大;颗粒物沉降通量具有明显的时空异质性,空间上河流区过渡区湖泊区[分别为27.82、 4.34和0.26 g·(m~2·d)~(-1)],时间上春夏季秋冬季;结合全湖60个点位四季悬浮物浓度调查估算,全库颗粒物沉降通量为2.57×10~6 t·a~(-1),其中春夏季沉降通量高于秋冬季;街口、小金山和大坝捕获沉降物中颗粒态氮含量(PN)分别为6 812、 15 886和21 986 mg·kg~(-1),磷含量(PP)分别为2 545、 3 269和3 077 mg·kg~(-1),自上游向下递增.统计分析表明,中雨以上降雨过程与河流区浊度增量呈指数相关(R~2=0.81),持续强降雨则对浊度有累加效应,但对过渡区影响不大;SS浓度自河流入库区至下游大坝随距离增加呈较好的指数下降特征(R~2=0.84),降雨较多的春夏季更为明显.结果还表明,新安江水库年均库容淤损率为0.07%,与全国其它大型水库相比较低,但是坝前沉降物营养盐含量较高,具有一定的内源释放风险;管理上应加强流域水土保持治理,降低降雨冲刷对水质的影响;同时关注坝前高营养沉积物的内源释放对水质的影响.